This month FLATE had the opportunity to visit two two-year
advanced manufacturing and mechatronics programs in Virginia:Piedmont Virginia Community College (PVCC) in
Charlottesville and Virginia Western Community College in Roanoke (VWCC).PVCC was hosting an outreach event for high
school programs to introduce the students to their new program launched this
academic year. Over one hundred twenty juniors and seniors from 4 regional high
schools arrived at the college for a 10 am program start. After welcome from
the program director and dean, a lively panel of local manufacturing and
production employers talked to the young people about their companies and what
they make.They went on to talk about
the kinds of skills new employees need to have to be hire and successful in
their companies.The business sectors
represented all voiced the need for some common fundamental technical skills
like measurements, electronics and quality. They also strongly endorsed the
need for personal success skills (employability skills, soft skills, personal
skills, etc). After the lively discussions and questions from the audience, the
students cycled through four stops: manufacturing lab tour and program
information; company displays where they showcased their products and
individually talked about their technician workforce needs. Several high school
and college engineering student projects were also on display.The last two stops were hands on activities
building a small ball bearing system and wiring a LED light circuit. It was a
great opportunity to get ideas for effective outreach and benchmark the labs of
our Florida Engineering Technology programs, and hear about the workforce needs
of manufacturing companies in other states and regions.

My second visit was to Virginia Western Community College (VWCC)
located in Roanoke, VA.The mechatronics
degree at VWCC was started by and still let by program manager Dan Horine about
ten years ago.The program has grown to
well over 100 students and hasattracted a number of manufacturers to the
region. After visiting the mechatronics, computer aided drafting and “Fab” lab,
I was lucky to observe the following required mechatronics systems course: ENG
105 – Problem Solving in Engineering Technology:

This innovative strategy is helping to secure specific math
skills needed by mechatronics technicians by providing relevant context to the
math skills being taught. The course basically provides a faculty “tutor” for
students currently taking math, engineering and mechatronics courses.Personally, I was struck by the
non-threatening and team environment and overall “helping” atmosphere. The
required course has only been offered a couple of years so its impact on
mechatronic student success has yet to be determine.

FRESHMEN AND STEM:TheIndicatorsreports: "In 2016 about 45% of freshmen
indicated they planned to major in an S&E field (up from about 8% in 2000);
about 16% in the biological and agricultural sciences; 11% in engineering; 10%
in the social and behavioral sciences; 6% in mathematics, statistics, or
computer sciences; and 3% in the physical sciences."

Other Highlights: "Between
2012 and 2015, the number of S&E associate’s degrees continued to increase
despite a decline in the number of associate’s degrees awarded in computer
sciences."

"The number of associate’s degrees in
S&E technologies, not included in S&E degree totals because of their
applied focus, grew by 72% since 2000. In 2015, about 144,000 associate’s
degrees were awarded in S&E technologies, down from 166,000 in 2012. The
proportion of associate’s degrees in engineering technologies . . . has
declined from 48% of all S&E technologies degrees in 2000 to 24% in 2015
(or from 7% of all associate’s degrees to 3%), whereas the proportion of
associate’s degrees in health technologies has increased from 50% in 2000 to
73% in 2013 (or from 7% of all associate’s degrees to 10%)."

Source:
National Science Board,2018 S&E Indicators Digest:​ "Despite accounting for one-half of the
college-educated workforce, women in 2015 accounted for less than one-third of
S&E employment. Although the number of women in S&E jobs has risen
significantly in the past 2 decades (from 755,000 in 1993 to 1,818,000 in
2015), the disparity has narrowed only modestly. Similarly,
underrepresented minorities—blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians or Alaska Natives—have
made substantial strides in S&E employment, increasing from 217,000 S&E
workers in 1993 to 705,000 in 2015. However, their representation in S&E
jobs (11%) remains below their share of the population (27%)."

ThesTEm-at Work Puzzle series is
on hiatus.It is likely the series will
return.However, as its slips out the
door heading toward Hyannis Port, today's FLATE FOCUS has a reminder of what
the puzzles are trying to do.

The
puzzles presented in the sTEm-at Work Puzzle
series provided tools for that task.The
puzzles are cast within situations a technician might become involved with and
at the level that the technician is expected to handle.The visually striking qualities of these
puzzles is there lack of specific values for the scalars represented as
independent and dependent variables.In
addition, the plots presented (line, sinusoids, and exponentials) represent
common waveforms that a technician is likely to encounter.The
intent here is to provide instructional avenues to the various measurement
systems that are used to quantize the situation described by the scalars in the
plot.

The
lack of specifics also directs the students to the plots intended message. This provides instructional avenues for proper
interpretation the graphic data as relative to magnitudes for variables in
context with the "story" that the graphic is presenting.It also directs student attention to the plot's
boundary conditions expectation.This
knowledge helps students understand the intended range of data that quantizes
the situation.

Finally, the puzzles present students with a situation where they must
reach a definitive (yes/no) conclusion.A task that is hard to master since it also requires the continuous
development of the student's proper self assessment of their knowledge and skills
and then the confidence to make a public declaration of their conclusions. Success
with these skills, in turn, develops the student use of data as part of their
trouble shooting toolbox with the confidence that they will be able to move
through the problem's symptoms, compare that data with the acceptable range of
data, and then fix the problem.

Despite
the ever presence of flashy visual data in our 21st century world,
few people critically review data in any format.It is very important for technical educators to
provide students with opportunities to practice and develop their own strategies
for analyzing visual information. Data
presented in infographics typically showcase data bytes that an author wants
the audience to see from a single point of view. This snapshot brevity of infographics is
admirable however, the practice hides data that is often needed to think
creatively, troubleshoot, and solve problems. Educators should use exercises like the
STEM-at-Work puzzles because our instructional practices typically do not
always deal with challenging information and critical interpretations. A successful technician in any field must be
able to critically read, interpret, and trouble shoot a problem using scalar data
quickly and effectively.And so, like
Arnie, we'll be back!

Last month, Kevin Finan and eight of his machining program
seniors form Atlantic Technical College in Broward County took a road trip to
USF College of Engineering and the Haas Outlet in Tampa. Kevin is a firm believer that providing students
exposure to various opportunities for his students after graduation is very
important. First hand exposure to
various programs and levels of post-secondary education and various workplace
settings is extremely helpful for young people when they are trying to identify
what they want to do and where they might fit into the future. Often students know right way after making a
visit to a company, college or university that that is a place they want work
or, equally important, that it’s NOT a place can see themselves in the future. The students had a great time, asked a lot of
good questions at both “stops” on their “road trip”. At the Haas Outlet, they of course learned
about the latest CNC technologies and about careers in machining. At USF, they visited several labs including
electrical engineering, industrial manufacturing lab, the nanotechnology
research and technology center and the student innovation lab space. They also heard about the engineering college
programs from Eva Fernandez and mechanical engineering students and explored
the student projects in the innovation lab.
There might be no better way to engage and encourage seniors to start
seriously exploring options than field trips.
FLATE would like to thank all their USF partners for supporting the tour
request and helping to provide a rich experience for the Atlantic Tech
students. A big shout out to Eva
Fernandez, Rob Tufts, Dr. Susana
Lai Yuen and the Electrical engineering team for taking time to share their
engineering passions with these students.

BREAKING NEWS!: The Atlantic Tech (ATC) SkillsUSA
Machining team just won the regional competition and will be heading to
the state competition at the end of April. Congratulations to the students from
ATC and best of luck in the state competition!

FLATE & St. John State Join efforts to Recruit
& Retain Women in STEM Careers Pathways

All across the board educators, advisors, counselors and
industry leaders are increasingly voicing a real and ever-present challenge of
recruiting and retaining women in STEM careers. To address some of these
concerns, and to start a platform for an open dialogue, FLATE—NSF Center of
Excellence in Advanced Technological Education presented a workshop hosted by
St. John River State College (SJRSC), Orange Park Campus in Orange Park,
FL. The professional development workshop, “Recruiting Girls for STEM
Pathways”, featured best practices for educators, recruiters, counselors,
advisors, and anyone interested in promoting STEM careers to women and girls.

Participants who attended the workshop had the opportunity
to interact with a panel of two STEM female experts and one female STEM
student, explored STEM based resources, shared current female recruitment practices
and engaged in teamwork to develop strategic action plans. The action
plans included both short and long-term goals to recruit and retain female STEM
programs.

Based on a post survey conducted by FLATE, over 95% of
participants who responded the survey (22 out of 25) rated good and/or
excellent their satisfaction with the overall professional development value
provided during the “Women in STEM-Career Pathways Recruitment and Retention
workshop”. The same percentage of responses indicated that they are
planning to use the information presented, will recommend this type of workshop
to other colleagues, and agreed and/or strongly agreed that the workshop is an
effective way to promote the importance of women in STEM career pathways
recruitment and retention. Nearly 90% of people surveyed also agreed and/or
strongly agreed that the STEM professional panel was engaging and provided
important advice regarding female recruitment and retention. Approximately 95%
of responses also agreed and/or strongly agreed the Round Robin and group
session provided a big picture of current practices and potential action plan
to improve the recruitment and retention of females in their programs.

Comments from Participants:

“Having these discussions and listening to different
viewpoints and perspectives will help in everyday decision-making process in
our role as educators and advisors”

“I love the panel and the brainstorming. This was
wonderful; I learned a lot”

In the last FLATE FOCUS we started the
conversation about Florida achieving manufacturing excellence. FLATE's part of
that quest is the connection between quality and excellence expectations on the
manufacturing floor and the workforce that provides the mechanism to achieve
those expectations. The hard part of technical workforce development is
reflected in the reality that the manufacturers alone cannot create the
workforce that optimally complements the advanced technologies these
manufacturers are simultaneously inserting into their manufacturing environments.
To be sure, manufacturers do get great initial technical support from their
equipment suppliers but those efforts are focused on installation and startup. Long
term integration of new technologies into the main stream of a specific
company’s manufacturing process and the accompanying protocols in a specific
facility still remains squarely within the manufacturer's domain. Thus, a Florida
based manufacturing workforce talent pool must have candidates that demonstrate
a depth and breadth of knowledge and skills defined by the demands of various
advanced manufacturing equipment technologies.

FloridaMakes,
the United State Department of Commerce Manufacturing Extension Partnership
(MEP) Center for Florida, and FLATE, a National Science Foundation Advanced
Technological Education Center for Manufacturing (NSF-ATE) in Florida, have
entered into a partnership with the long-term goal to develop a world-class
technical workforce that will be the backbone for Florida manufacturing. This union allows the blending of focused
resources and expertise to accomplish this mission. It also allows manufacturers
to take advantage of the value-added both of these Centers possess. Ultimately, FloridaMakes, as a member of the
MEP National Network, and FLATE, as an NSF Advanced Technological Education
Center of Excellence, now have access to combined MEP and ATE national knowledge,
current recommended practices, and expertise that will address the challenges
generated by Florida's need to have a highly talented manufacturing workforce
pool.

At this point, four target mechanisms have
been identified as key elements in creating this talent resource for
manufacturers;

·Work-based Learning

·Internship &
Apprenticeships

·Skill Certification

·Talent Pipeline
Development.

Although these elements are foundation pillars for
talent pool development, they are not addressed within a unified education
strategy. Work-based learning and internship and apprenticeships, are viewed as
standalone components for workforce training. The overall talent pipeline
development does reside within the K-16 academic structure but it has, at best,
a dim focus on manufacturing workforce career options. This MEP-ATE partnership
in Florida is unique in the nation and it will result in a dramatic difference
in the way these four workforce development elements are addressed in Florida.This brings this FLATE FOCUS article full
circle. The hard part of technical workforce development is reflected in the
reality that manufacturers alone cannot create the workforce with the additional
fact that the workforce pool needed cannot be created without manufacturers’
involvement. Fortunately for Florida, there are proactive Regional
Manufacturing Associations (RMA) that are involved in workforce education and
training. Please contact your RMA and join in their efforts. For specific contact information about your
RMA, either Richard Gilbert, gilbert@usf.edu or Lake Ray lake@fcmaweb.com from
FLATE and the First Coast Manufacturing Association, respectively, will help
you get connected. As FLATE FOCUS continues with
this Manufacturing Excellence in
Florida theme, we will elaborate on the
components statekholders have that can directly contribute to creating a world
class manufacturing workforce in Florida. The March FOCUS will address how this
new FLATE and FloridaMakes partnership will make a major difference in the approach
to manufacturing workforce development and manufacturing excellence in Florida.

For more information about FloridaMakes, visit their website. If you have questions about this article, please contact Dr. Richard Gilbert at gilbert@usf.edu.

A common barrier for post-secondary technical education
programs is the mathematics skills and knowledge of entering students. Related
issues that must be triangulated with incoming students’ math levels are (1)
college degree mathematics requirements; (2) specific math needed to support
the technical program content; (3) the content and length of the courses in
which the needed math is typically covered; and (4) restrictions on the length
of the degree or certificate program.

Over the holiday weekend last month, approximately 60
secondary and post-secondary educators, industry representatives and
mathematics education experts convened in Baltimore for an intense three days
defining the issues, specific math skills and knowledge, what is needed for
student success. This gathering was
coordinated by a National Science Foundation Advanced Technological Education
(NSF ATE) funded conference grant (DUE #1737946) award to Hofstra University.
The goal of the project is to define the current needed mathematics for
technician education programs in three advanced technology domains: Advanced
Manufacturing, Biotechnology and Information Technology. A steering committee
with education and industry representatives met to define and invite
appropriate attendees, the overarching needs, the working sessions and group
goals and objectives and overall conference agenda. FLATE is representing the Advanced
Manufacturing domain for education on this committee.

During the conference, participants worked in domain groups
(industry sectors); affinity groups (educators, industry representative,
mathematics education experts); and whole group activities. The conference also heard from an industry
panel about their company and sector technician talent needs and what they
predict their future needs will be. The external evaluator, research associate
and technical writer also participated in the full conference and steering
committee to help keep the group focused on the goals and objectives and to
observe and participate in the various working groups.

Both the individual energy and enthusiasm for the work being
done was honest, sincere and pervasive. Industry representatives were very
engaged and made special note that they were happy to be included to share
their personal and industry sector technician education needs. They were also
very interested in learning more about the formalities of the education system
with respect to defined courses and course content, degrees and degree
structure, and the hierarchies of content.

The conference project leadership and steering committee are
working through the 50+ flip chart pages; sample problem templates, participant
feedback and afterthoughts, notes and recordings So what were some of the first
“take-aways” from the conference? Here are few!

·Math is still a barrier for some students but it
can be overcome

·We think we know what math is needed for entry
level technicians in the 3 disciplines

·We are not sure how and where to teach this needed
math within the educational system

·Technical program faculty are very willing to
teach needed math in context

·Partnerships between math and technician
educators and industry should be encouraged

·Industry is very interested in workforce
education and participating in this conversation

·Workplace applications of basic math are complex
and consequential

·Gaps between what is taught and what is needed
should be defined

Answers
to some of these questions could cause technician educators to change what and
how they teach and impact the formalized mathematics education courses and
frameworks. All of this is important to
our Florida Engineering Technology degree as well as other technician education
programs in our state. There is
certainly a balance of educating technicians so they are “ready to work”, the
time investment of the education process, the level of theory and background
needed for straight forward mathematics operations that are well defined and
used repeatedly. The steering committee
is continuing its work to compile the information gathered and propose
recommendations and possible strategies.
A white paper/conference proceedings document will be published and will
be available in early June. For more
information about the project, participants, resources and workshop, please
visit the Needed Math website: www.neededmath.org
or contact Dr. Marilyn Barger (barger@fl-ate.org)
.

MFG DAY 2018 SAVE THE DATE

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Checkout the newest technologies

PA Mechatronics Dissemination Conference

We are looking for speakers for our Grant dissemination conference at Hagerstown Community College in Maryland on AUG 14, 2018. We are targeting industry, HS and college students for this 1-day event. Please contact me for more info if interested and in attending.

HS Mechatronics Video

After attending a mechatronics workshop last summer, funded by NSF ATE CollaborATE grant at the College of Lake County held at Florida State College at Jacksonville, M Tanner (high school workshop attendee) worked with his students in IL to program a train system using PLC’s.

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Disclaimer

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation, under the following grant DUE# 1204751. "Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation."